I have as much of a sense of humour as the next person. And God does too.
I have no problem laughing about religion, with religion, at religion… And God is the same.
God is bigger than most people’s pride, dignity, and egotism.
But I do get concerned when God is trivialised; when, with great arrogance and self-righteousness, people turn God and God’s good news into being akin to a wrinkle-hindering cream.
Jesus did not die to get us to “like” him on a facebook page. If that is done as a joke, that is one thing; if this is the depth of (some people’s) Christianity – then we are in serious trouble.
[I am not writing solely about the image at the top of this page, doing the rounds as a status update – I am using that to illustrate a trend, an attitude, an approach.]
As I’ve said on more than one occasion, I find these messages/emails very distasteful. On principle I will not forward or repost anything which tries emotional blackmail to get you to forward them otherwise you are a terrible human being or Christian who doesn’t love God, or care about cancer patients, the mentally ill or whatever the cause is.
This is no different than a chain letter that tells you to say something fifteen times or you will die. Somehow I doubt The Lord is watching to see if you “like” a Facebook meme and deciding whether you are worthy of him based on that. Idiots.
God was and will be around before, during and after facebook. God does not need our ‘likes’ as if it is some type of approval. God knows our hearts and minds.
American political discourse has already been trivialized into soundbites. Is it any real surprise that religious discourse is being treated similarly? Facebook and similar platforms make this sort of vapid message seductively easy to spread. Real discourse requires real thought. Real thought is in short supply on the Internet in general and Facebook in particular.
It’s interesting how every new avenue of human self-expression that is invented quickly comes to be constrained by conventional wisdom. A couple of centuries ago, people who prided themselves on their morality would have gossiped about and stared at those who did not attend church on Sunday. Today, the same sort of morality policing goes on via coercive Facebook posts and emails.
So, when jesus said “follow me”, he wasn’t referring to twitter?
This is just begging for someone clever to draw a funny cartoon, something with God at a computer and a witty caption. I just couldn’t think of anything clever enough myself, but I’m sure someone out there can.